Great solution. I'm going to have to try this when I get home. Thanks!
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CiaocibaiJan 24 '11 at 23:59

Thanks for the solution. I have a non-jail broken iPhone and was able to get what I needed. However, I'd also be interested in sans-Terminal solutions for non-technical folks if you've used any.
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Matthew RankinJan 26 '11 at 16:30

After trying out AllYourTexts, i can honestly say that this is the most simple and easy to use software for exporting text messages. I've looked around the web for days trying to find a program that will export text messages AND iMessages for the iPhone, and I finally found it. As a computer geek, I highly recommend AllYourTexts.
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user26487Aug 1 '12 at 6:22

1

This is great! View, export and see status of your texting habits! Thanks much for your efforts.
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SeanDowneyJun 26 at 3:51

I rely on PhoneView which you correctly note is a Mac OS X only paid solution.

It has always been updated very quickly by the developers each time a new iOS is released. I even received support several times for pre-release / beta versions of iOS and iTunes. Support emails are promptly answered and I have twice received custom builds from them to resolve issues using their product with pre-release iOS versions to assist me in managing the devices I use for iOS development.

I've used PhoneView to save data from a phone that iTunes said was broken and could only be erased and then restored. It's been a reliable swiss army knife for me filling in many gaps that iTunes and Xcode leave for managing iOS devices.

me too, its a fantastically handy piece of software, it was one of the first apps out there when it was called iPhoneDrive. I use it most of the time to bypass iTunes when loading content/backing up in game purchases.
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Stu WilsonOct 5 '12 at 20:46

I'm on windows and I bought Decipher Text Message (Mac $7, Windows $10). It did the trick for my needs and backed up all my work sms messages from my iphone. My girlfriend uses it too however, she is on a mac. The cool thing is that the program also saved my sms images, which I hadn't even expected. Has anyone tried any of the other tools?? Curious about them.

My destination for the export was a new Smasung Galaxy Note, so the Samsung Kies software (eventually) managed to import the SMSs from an unencrypted iPhone backup. Kies is free for Samsung phones. It was necessary to 'update drivers' from one of the menus in Kies before this worked for me. Kies also prevents me running Android File Transfer on 10.8, so I uninstalled Kies once the import was complete.

Otherwise, I've successfully used DiskAid on the Mac to export my SMSs to a flat text file. A useful reference, but I'd rather it exported a friendly (ie standard) SQLite database so I could easily use the data elsewhere.

DiskAid is $29.90 at the time of answer, but they also offer free educational licenses to folk with email addresses at tertiary institutions.